The Mirror

Chapter 3: An Unexpected Valentine

"No, Travis is."

"Seriously? I didn't know he cooked. Is there a Star Trek cookbook?"

"Actually there is. I fear I may get my first taste of Plomeek soup. I told him I'd happily make gumbo instead, but he insisted. The sacrifices I make for love."

After a few minutes of discussing the finer points of Vulcan cuisine, Neal headed to his studio where he got in a solid two hours of painting before it was time to meet on the video.

Mozzie had come up with the idea to make an animated short film about the yellow-faced bee. He'd embraced the cause of the Hawaiian endangered species as part of his initial enthusiasm for Hawaiian honey. Aidan was looking for a subject for a video he needed to make for an animation course. The resulting project was a marriage made in honey heaven.

Aidan was allowed to recruit helpers so it became a joint endeavor with Richard and Neal. Aidan was in charge of the animation, Richard designed the characters, Neal prepared the backgrounds, and Mozzie volunteered to write the script. After years of lecturing Neal on the importance of living the life of inanimate objects where he'd spin tales about a file, a piece of jewelry, or a book, Mozzie was now crafting adventures for the yellow-faced bee. It came as no surprise that he excelled at it.

Their superhero was named Yellowface the Masked Avenger. Richard made him look like a punk rock star who handled his stinger with the ferocity of a world-class fencer. The adventure was set in Hawaii where the villains were the destroyers of his habitat. Yellowface and his band of fellow bees were patterned after the musketeers protecting the queen bee. Richard and Fiona had written the music which was performed by their band. Yellowface was voiced by Neal. Angela took on the role of the imperious queen. The fact that Angela had roped in Michael to voice the part of a young amorous bee who spent his entire time hovering around the queen was not lost on Neal or any of the other band members.

Today's meeting was being held at Aidan's studio north of the main campus. As Neal and Richard walked up Broadway, they discussed the makeups Richard was designing for the convention. Mozzie initially hadn't planned to attend Tac-Con, but when Travis suggested he go as Quark, he couldn't resist. Richard had agreed to make the prosthetics. Janet would accompany Mozzie as a Dabo girl. Neal, Richard, and Aidan weren't wearing costumes since they were participating in competitions.

"How are Travis's ears coming?" Neal asked.

"He's a tough client," Richard admitted. "I must have made ten pairs before he was finally satisfied. Janet's meeting with him now to go over the specifics of his uniform. He had an old uniform he was going to wear, but Janet insisted on providing him with new threads."

"She and Mozzie are thrilled with the makeups you designed. I'm sure she wanted to show her appreciation."

When they arrived at the studio, Aidan and Mozzie were already there. Aidan had made a giant wall calendar for the month, displaying all that needed to be accomplished. It was a daunting challenge.

"If we weren't trying to exhibit it at Tac-Con, I'd have months more to work on this," Aidan said, contemplating the calendar gloomily. "I don't know how I'll have it ready by the end of February."

Mozzie was dismissive of his concerns. "My script is so compelling that no matter what the art looks like, you'll be a winner."

Aidan started the meeting with a run-through of the video. To Neal's eye, there wasn't much left to be done, but Aidan felt otherwise, pointing out issues with almost every frame and growing increasingly frantic at the mountain of revisions he was proposing. His stress was rubbing off on everyone there.

"Do you want to back out of the competition?" Neal finally asked in frustration.

"No way!" Aidan said, looking horrified. "Did you hear the prizes they're talking about? There's even a chance the video could be selected to be shown at Comic-Con in San Diego this summer. I'm not giving up on that prize."